Montezuma's Revenge

Monday, 29 May 2006

Hello,

On Friday we had a going away party for our fellow volunteers, Jodie and Adam. We had our english students and the teachers gathered together to share a dinner of Papa Reiña, mashed potatoes with meat stuffed inside and then fried...it is hard to explain in writing without being able to show you with my hands, next time you see me, ask me if you would like to know how they are made! They were very good. We also had some guacamole made with Peruvian avocados which are like 3 times the size of those you can buy in the states and much, much cheaper. After dinner we had some dancing and then we went out to a discotec called Asia. It was very small, but nicely decorated. We went with intentions of dancing, but there was a live band and it was very difficult music to dance to. We hung out and listened to the music for a bit and then left to got to El Premio, a different discotec, much more dancer friendly! Megan, Shawn, and I stayed until about 2am and then left to go to bed because we had to be up at 5 am to catch a bus to Cajamarca, a mountain town to the east of Chiclayo. I unfortunately woke up at 4 am almost in tears because I was in so much pain, I went to the bathroom, threw up and then had really bad diareha from something I had eaten or a little bit of water that had gotten in my mouth during a shower or something. Anyway, I was in no state to be riding on a bus for 6 hours so I did not get to go to Cajamarca, which makes me very sad. I am still a bit disappointed that I was unable to go! I looked at some pictures that other volunteers had and it is a beautiful place. I was really looking forward to some green instead of the desert that surrounds Chiclayo. Oh well, it happens. And I would not have made it on the bus as there was no toilet and I was pretty close to the toilet all morning, until 2pm on Saturday when the Cipro kicked in. I guess Shawn and Megan got there and Shawn promptly got sick and had to spend the day in bed. Megan did not get sick until that night, but she was also sick all night Saturday. Both of them woke up feeling decent on Sunday and so went and wandered around Cajamarca all day, returning to Chiclayo at 3 am this morning. Instead of heading east and seeing the green, I went west and saw the ocean and more sand in Pimentel. Pimentel has a pier. The pier is very long and very old. Jodie, Adam, and I walked the pier. I was not a fan of it because there were some big gaps in between the wood boards and some of them were a bit decayed and they moved when you stepped on them, I walked very slowly and carefully. Pretty sure every Peruvain that saw me walking laughed at me because they walked on the pier like it was nothing and here is this gringo walking so slowly and carefully. I must have been a sight! I survived though and then walked on the beach, which was much more to my liking! We hung out there for a couple hours and then headed back to Chiclayo. I caught up on my journaling and then did some reading. We then went out to dinner and home to go to bed.

If I ever return to Peru, Cajamarca is on my list of places to go!

I love you and will see you soon,
Kathy